Anonymous asked:
Get a society6 account! All you'd have to do is just upload the designs :) You're such an inspiration to me and your work has so much life and beauty so I'd definitely buy your prints since I won't be able to attend any of those conventions :(!!

:| Unfortunately, Society6 takes such a larger margin out of each print sale, I can’t justify it when I have a massive print stock (and shipping materials) in my closet.

But so far, three people have asked me about setting up my shop.  I try to get around to it after I finish my massive backlog of homework. >.<…

wakiinwonderland asked:
Your art is awesome. Your style is one thing I admire a lot about your work because, as an artist myself, I'm still stuck in the 'technical' mindset for a lot of things and have yet to develop a style for myself. So cheer up, and know that we all know you are awesome :)

I’m actually super technical, too!  I studied a lot of fine arts techniques and just applied them to my personal work.  I actually didn’t think I had a style until my teacher was like, “Cool style.” … my response to him was, “I have a style?” LOL…

I think that achieving a style is a matter of learning everything and picking and choosing your favorite things to represent ‘you’.  Like, I really like people with long legs, so when I’m drawing for fun, I draw a lot of long legs.  But you find these things out the more you draw, the more you venture out into the world.  Technique can be learned, but style comes from mileage.

I’m sure a lot of artists deal with this, but: my self-doubt comes from me being like, “Oh, what if no one else likes things I like?” On the internet and in the circles I am in, animators and anime fans are way more into cute things than I ever will be.  ’Cute’ in general is a much more widely liked style than ‘skinny boys in sepia’. But it doesn’t really speak to me.  

It’s a constant battle between “draw cute and colorful” and “draw what I like”!  I just need to remind myself that - despite the convention sales, despite the Tumblr notes - no artist should change the personal style just to be popular (trust me, I’ve tried).  Always work on technique and feel free to try new styles for jobs, but your personal style represents your own experiences and voice.

Anonymous asked:
Your work is so amazing!! By any chance, do you sell prints of your work? I would definitely by a ton of them :)

At the moment, I only sell prints in-person at conventions.  You can view my convention list here.

I have an online store, but it’s closed because I was too lazy to upload product photos … >.> I guess I thought no one would buy?! (No, it was like 90% laziness.)

I guess since I have a stock already - if ten people yell at me to get my online shop up, I’ll bring it back by the end of next week. LOL.

#hcano asked what supplies I use. All can be found at #blick and #utrecht (and their online stores).

Toned paper, hardcover, spiral sketchbook. I buy them in bulk on line from Utrecht. Strathmore makes a softcover version.

Prismacolor Col-erase. I use these both for initial sketch and final colors.

Staedtler Pigment Liner pens. I use these for inking. Tough felt tip lasts awhile.

Copic Marker, Warm Grey. W2, W4, W6. Warm works well on tan paper. Brush tip is good for filling in values.

Sharpie Water-based Paint Pen. Extra fine. Not oil-based. That one doesn’t work.

Here’s my convention commission sheet (featuring some friends OCs.) Not sure if you can read it, but my prices vary between $10 and $60 USD. Sometimes, they have gone as high as $100.  It’s cheaper than my online commissions ( less time, no shipping, etc.)  However, most new people stick between $5 and $30 USD.

My price is a combination of how much time I spend and how much folks are willing to pay. It’s tough, at first, to get people to fork over large amounts of money. Not to mention, it’s hard to do your best work at a con where there’s time pressure and distraction. However, after a few bumps in my first year, I found a drawing style that lets me offer reliable service and quality work, and I’ve gained a lot of repeat customers who think it’s worth the price.  A plus side to my prices is they help me manage my workload by deterring inexperienced clients, meaning each piece can be higher quality.  Having good prints and straightforward commission samples helps a ton, too!

It’s different for everyone, but 60% of my revenue comes from commissions. I take between 10 and 20 per con.

scarlet-frost asked:
Whoa! Great round of commission work from the con! :D You have a lot, are you very fast?

I guess, it depends?   lt takes about thirty minutes to an hour to do a convention commission (full body, 6”x9”, color) when I can concentrate.

wellmanicuredman asked:
when you did worldbuilding wednesday last week i meant to send you an ask but forgot so anyway here's a wbw question a week late, sorry. i’d like to hear a bit about "prince"—what fairy tales are you addressing so far? which ones are you most focused on?

Yay! Sorry, I kind of got inundated trying to catch up with homework.

Prince is a series of gender-bent fairytales I’ve been writing. Once I’m done writing, I’ll illustrate them. I’ll use Kickstarter to print and publish individual books. I’m not sure whether to put them online for free or not because I’m not sure people would like them.

The stories I’m addressing are ones with female ‘protagonists’ - largely because they end up in passive story roles due to gender bias. Note that all characters are gender-swapped. Fathers become mothers, witches are wizards, etc.

However, the idea should go beyond making a woman the savior: I wanted to boil down the fairy tales to universal concepts that can be related to by all genders but still maintain an environment consistent with the actual story.  For example, Cinderella is a blacksmith rather than a maid.

Readers of both genders are already familiar with the female protagonist. By reading a gender-swapped version, I hope to help them glean the more universal themes. For example, I think The Little Mermaid is a story about “not belonging” which is a feeling that boy guys and girls experience.

Here’s the slate at the moment, and the current state of each story:

• Little Mermaid - printed and published
• Red Riding Hood - first draft completed
• Cinderella - first draft in progress
• Snow White - outlined
• Sleeping Beauty - outlined
• Beauty and the Beast - outlined

And I’ve been trying to decide if I want Rapunzel or the Snow Queen for the last one, but it’s a toss-up.

It’s kind of on the backburner for now, but I could probably bring it forward to an early 2014 release.

Anonymous asked:
hi! i know this is such a random question but do you recommend any tutorials on actionscript? :x thanks!!

Sorry, but I don’t know ActionScript! I bet Google can help you out, though.

From gonnagetrealfarkid:

I suggest Flexel(sp?) for learning AS3 for games. And there’s a tutorial I googled up when speed teaching myself last summer that makes an increasingly more complicated game.

reewa asked:
Since you're now starting out with digital art (I dread using this media, too ><), what steps are you taking to get yourself accustomed to using it? I currently use a Bamboo tablet and man, the hand-eye coordination is a pain and I hate the feeling of having to learn to draw all over again. :[

This probably isn’t the answer you expected, but: I bought a Cintiq.  

I tried digital on an Intuos for eight years without success.  Still can’t!  I hit a point where I was like “either spend $2,000 or severely stunt my artistic growth.”  The Cintiq eliminates the hand-eye coordination problem for me.  I paid for it by doing traditional commissions, LOL!

Pretty much all my friends are able to use the Bamboo after a few months of practice. I’m just the dumb one who needed to spend an exorbitant amount of money to be normal. :/

EDIT: More from junsosunderland (I’m solely a PS user, so I hadn’t thought of her good advice!):

The program you use can make a TREMENDOUS difference. I didn’t see massive improvement til I started using Paint Tool SAI. Being able to freely rotate the canvas (and the stabilizer tool) made an enormous difference for me. Much more ‘natural’ feeling than say, Photoshop.

Anonymous asked:
Okay, so it's my dream to go into animation. It is the one thing I know I'll be happy doing for the rest of my life. I'm still in high school, but my school is expecting me to know what I want to do with my life even though I still have 2 years until graduation. If I had money, I would go to school for animation without a doubt, but I don't and I don't know if I'm even good enough to get into a good school. I don't know if I should just be a teacher or something or aim for my "dream."

Hehe, giving the old “you don’t have to do Just One Thing” speech:

If you’re really worried, aim for your dream and target Animation - but make sure you receive a broad education (say a liberal arts minor).  Getting a broad degree at a university in the right place (like CSU Fullerton) might be cheaper than going to a private school (like CalArts or RCAD).  

And after college is over, get a Master’s degree.  A Master’s makes teaching certification easier.  Then you can teach animation!

I left because I was laid off, along with 350 other people.  I still live nearby, so I visit a lot.  There are still a lot of great people there, even if a lot of us have moved around a bit.  

One job isn’t everything.  I always intended on taking some time to go to art school.  It just happened a sooner than I expected.  Luckily, I had just finished saving the money!  Like, the month before.  Haha.  

So many people on my blog in the past week! (Where are you all coming from?!) o.O; Hi!  We’ll see if other folks think that engineering degree is cool when I start looking for jobs again.

Anonymous asked:
I want to become an animator eventually and I've been applying to colleges recently, and I have the option of either majoring in just Computer engineering or animation (however it is in the engineering school so there would be a focus on that) The just computer engineering is cheaper, do you know if it is worth the the extra money to major in something a little more relevant? is it possible to become an animator with just a compsci major? thanks for your time.

It’s totally possible, but you’d probably have to do some extra legwork to make up for your missing classes.  It seems like you’re looking at two majors within the same school, so what I would do is create a list of courses that differ between both majors.  Ask some current students what they think of those courses and if they were helpful.  That way, you can make an informed decision over whether those courses are worth the savings or if you should study animation separately. 

Anonymous asked:
I think Dreamworks uses Maya along with their own homemade program but do you think it's worth it to learn 3ds Max? It seems like so many companies are using Maya nowadays.

Actually, I don’t know. I think Max is commonly used among game studios and Maya is commonly used at animation houses.  I can only confirm that the places I’ve worked at have required me to know Maya (DreamWorks, UPenn).  You really want to ask more people, though.  It’s usually no biggie to switch from one program to another, just re-learning where keys are.  That, and Alias owns all three of Maya, Max, and XSI… :|

EDIT: Got some more up to date info from artchoface:

Yo, to add to that anon- currently game companies prefer to use Maya as well. Max is nice but Maya is preferred. Big companies like Blizzard and Naughty Dog and Sucker Punch use Maya along with other software such as ZBrush and MudBox. :) The past few animation and game conference and job fairs I have been to have told me as much, hope this helps Fic! <3

Anonymous asked:
Your work is really amazing and I just saw that you majored in engineering so you're insanely smart, too! do you think engineering has made the 3d field you're in easier? have you ever thought maybe you would have preferred 3d animation or something art related over engineering? you're so cool XD

D: Wah, Anon thinks I’m cool.

Engineering has definitely helped me.  The engineering thinking process breaks big problems down step-by-step and work with other people to accomplish big goals.  Thus, it can be applied to concept art to make more practical, detailed, easily communicated designs.  

As for how it affects me day-to-day: art tasks get repetitive, so I write scripts to handle work for me.  For example, instead of painting a texture brick by brick, I can write a script that repeats one brick texture over a wall in my desired pattern.

Sometimes I wonder what it would be like if I went to art school instead of engineering - but that’s why I study art now alongside doing engineering work.  Learning doesn’t stop after you finish your undergraduate major, and I love my varied education.  No regrets!

The green avatars represent the green-screen, a key tool in visual effects moviemaking.

Changing your avatar to a green-screen represents solidarity with the computer graphics industry which is currently being plagued by bankruptcy and layoffs (like what happened to me last week ORZ…): Digital Domain, Sony Entertainment, DreamWorks Animation, Pixomondo, Zynga, and more.

The “greenscreen movement” is largely prompted by bankruptcy of Rhythm and Hues, the company responsible for two Oscar-nominated movies this year: Snow White and the Huntsman and Life of Pi. Just weeks before the ceremonies, much of their staff (the people that made those movie!) got laid off - many of those workers picketed outside the Academy on Oscar’s night.  Insult was added to injury when Life of Pi won an Oscar for ‘Best Visual Effects’ and the winner’s acceptance speech was cut short as soon as he mentioned the financial issues at R&H (it may not have been intentional, but it still read terribly!).

VFX is highly competitive.  When a studio wants to make a movie, VFX houses name a price they can do the work for.  Obviously, studios want lower prices and faster work, so VFX houses frequently under-bid each other and ask for unreasonable workdays.  Studios thus get more demanding and drive prices into unsustainable territories.  In addition, some areas provide subsidies for local VFX work - up to 30%! - meaning studios only have to pay for 70% of the movie.  Taxpayers cover the rest.  So globally, it’s an uneven playing field.  California doesn’t give subsidies, so established Hollywood houses are losing bids that were already too low to begin with.  This Reddit post does an amazing job explaining the situation.

While layoffs are familiar in project-based industry, this is a LOT in just a few months, and it brings an unhealthy business model to public light.  I encourage you - if you want to work in this field or simply enjoy VFX movies - to research and appreciate the work that goes into them - and maybe we can collectively hope for change. 

To get more up-to-date information, I suggest VFX Soldier: http://vfxsoldier.wordpress.com/.